Official documentation

[Erald]

Hi folks!

I am a new user of Corona render, coming from many years of V-Ray and other engines. Corona is a very intriguing and beautiful peace of software, so I wanna learn more.
Unfortunately, all I can find are Youtube video tutorials. Is there any official documentation/written book/pdf guide I can put my hands on? Something that explains what each and every button does, going through the menus? I am interested in learning the logic behind the engine, in order to advance faster. I also think that a user manual at this point is a must, as you can imagine, users can't go all the time on Youtube to look for a specific task.

Thank you and keep the good work on!
Erald

[TomG]

Hi Erald!

Welcome to the Corona-side :)

There's no manual - the primary aim is to keep everything intuitive with simple controls, then add tooltips that explain the function of each. To answer specific questions that may need more depth, we have freshdesk (because it can be updated with each change in Corona more easily than any manual document, and Corona development happens fast!) - https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions

For specific "how to" steps we move to videos and our YouTube channel. And as the last part of the training available, there's always the Corona Academy and courses run by instructors certified through that program (https://corona-academy.com/).

Thanks!
   Tom

[Erald]

Hi Tom!

Thank your for the information and for welcoming me in the Corona-side, hope you have cookies! :D
I will go read all the topics in the Helpdesk first thing! Looks like there is a lot of useful information there. As I mentioned I am eager to learn about the engine logic, what happens in the background when you press the button and the magic happens. Doing that users will learn what are the strongest points and the weakest ones, where to be careful and where to dig deeper. We live in a cool era for the viz world, and you guys are pushing the boundaries every day!

Cheers!

[Ludvik Koutny]

If you want to know what every button does, then simply hold your cursor over it for a moment. Most of the important things in Corona have tooltips. Those serve as a basic manual without need to leave 3ds Max and search for it.

[maru]

As I mentioned I am eager to learn about the engine logic, what happens in the background when you press the button and the magic happens

Hi, I think you may like this one:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000518064

[Erald]

Thank you for the tips guys...I am going through the documentation, finding plenty of interesting stuff!

[maru]

Thank you for the tips guys...I am going through the documentation, finding plenty of interesting stuff!

Feel free to as any questions, and also be sure to report any problems, missing links, outdated images if you find any.

[disoranno94]

Thanks for this guys. For the most part the controls are pretty intuitively simple to understand. However even after reading the documentation, I occasionally run into problems that I find tougher to find answers for. On an additional note, I feel that I will switch to Linux after reading this. I feel it will make it easier to debug and it will run faster. Does anybody have experience with this?

[cecofuli]

If you want to run faster, you can use Window+Corona Standalone. You will add a 20-30%boost in the rendering time.

[disoranno94]

Oh cool :) Thanks for the tip. Let's see how it goes.

[cecofuli]

I did a test this morning. Same scene (interior scene)

Standalone:
5minutes = NL 3.9% (2.825.000 Rays/s)


3ds Max:
5minutes = NL 4.6% (2.255.000 Rays/s)

So +20% boost

But, obviously, not all the procedural maps and plugins are supported by the Standalone.